Longsword Style: Judy Erickson

Music by: Jon Berger

Explore one or two meaty sword figures in depth. Rather than a horizontal style class, this class will go vertical. The figures will be done in layers, each one adding another style component to the execution: footwork, musicality, sword handling, teamwork, audience/ performance perspective, etc.

English Clogging for All: Meg Ryan

Music by: Noel Cragg

Meg will teach some steps from Pat Tracey's heel and toe style of dancing. From the Lancashire region of England, Heel and Toe is the oldest style of English clog dance, and has been done since the early 1800s. Done in reel time (4/4), it differs from most English clog by regular use of heel beats as well as toe beats. The steps range from simple to complicated and challenging, but all are fun to execute and perform, making it a very accessible style for mixed abilities to learn. It is widely known and performed in England. Come and try this fun class, which is open to all ability levels from beginner to advanced. Bring English wooden soled clogs if you have them, or a closely fitted oxford style laced shoe with a smooth, hard sole. A small number of loaner clogs will be available for use as well.

Delving Deeper into English Country Dance Music: Shira Kammen

This class will look at the wonderful melodies and different types of settings of English Country Dance music. This ranges from selections from the Renaissance Playford collections, dances set to melodies by Purcell and contemporaries, elegant ‘Jane Austen-ish’ type dances, as well as folk tunes. Some of the music will be in composed parts, and some of the music we will arrange ourselves, based on chord progressions and melodic elements. A sense of musical adventure is necessary! Being able to read music will make this class more accessible.

Forgotten Treasures: 17th/18th Centuries: Philippe Callens

Music by: Jonathan Jensen, Shira Kammen, Daniel Beerbohm

A varied selection of dances published between 1650 and 1800, several of them unfamiliar, all chosen for their interesting patterns and great tunes. In this session, you will have a chance to learn dances reconstructed by people such as Pat Shaw, Tom Cook, Andrew Shaw and Philippe himself.

Singing for All: Karen Geer

Singing for All is a class that emphasizes vocal technique and will use these skills in singing. If you were ever told NOT to sing, this is the class for you. This class does not focus on repertoire, but rather uses songs as a basis for improving your singing. Simple harmonies will be taught.

Gathering: Kalia Kliban

An important aspect of camp is building and maintaining our ephemeral, temporary yet profound community over the week. One of the best ways is to gather together every day in this session that transcends mundane announcements through your contributions of songs, jokes, instrumental interludes, brief historical presentations, dance demonstrations, etc. Do you have a song, instrumental piece, recitation or performance to share with us? Let Kalia know so she can put you on the schedule!

Open Caller/Open Band: YOU with: Sharon Green

Music by: YOU and Jim Oakden

A time to dance to a widely varied repertoire (and to support your fellow dance leaders and musicians as they stretch their wings). Callers and musicians, bring your instruments to play and dances to call. Dancers, bring your shoes. Jim Oakden will coordinate the music; Sharon Green will coordinate the callers and will provide opportunities for gentle feedback for those who wish.

Classic Playford Dances (Advanced): Helene Cornelius

Music by: Peter Barnes, Barbara Greenberg

Explore in detail some of the classic gems of the historical repertoire. Helene will gently guide you through the intricacies (and occasional idiosyncrasies) of her choice collection of memorable dances. Note: This class is designed for dancers very comfortable with the standard figures of English country dancing.

Advanced Clog: Meg Ryan

Music by: Noel Cragg

Meg will pull from her wide repertoire of English clog styles to teach something fun and challenging. Hornpipe, Waltz, Jig or a Marley routine are possibilities. Bring English wooden soled clogs if you have them, or a closely fitted oxford style laced shoe with a smooth, hard sole. A small number of loaner clogs will be available for use as well. Open to anyone with experience in any style of step dancing (tap, Appalachian, Cape Breton, etc.)

Dancing the Whole Dance: Brooke Friendly

Music by: Jonathan Jensen, Shira Kammen, Jim Oakden

Within the context of dancing excellent dances, we will spend time exploring global terminology as a tool to build community and learn (and dance) the whole dance. The teaching language will be global and geography-based, referring to position rather than gender. You will have the opportunity to dance all roles in a dance - learning the whole pattern. If you are interested in looking at a new way of teaching or building a dance community, you’ll leave with some tools and food for thought. If you simply want to dance a variety of enjoyable dances, the teaching language has the benefit of simplicity and clarity…there will be plenty of good dancing.

Melody/Harmony: Peter Barnes

We'll work on shaping melody lines and using ornamentation and improvisation to develop ideas. We will also work on technical issues in challenging tunes. Learn what to play when someone else takes the melody line, how to get to the "insides" of a tune, and how to join the melody and the backup rhythm. And we'll have fun playing beautiful music together!

Callers' Class (Advanced): Philippe Callens

Music by: Daniel Beerbohm

In this session Philippe will focus on teaching techniques, especially those that lead to better dancing. His question, aimed at experienced callers, is, what else can we do as callers apart from walking dancers through figures?

The More the Merrier: Kalia Kliban

Music by: Jonathan Jensen, Jon Berger, Jim Oakden

New and experienced dancers alike are welcome to join Kalia for a relaxed and joyful romp through four centuries of favorite dances. The dances will range from giddy to graceful, and from centuries-old to hot off the griddle.

ECD Choreographers’ Flight Time: Brooke Friendly

Music by: Barbara Greenberg

Join your fellow campers in a working session to test new dances and explore ways to improve them, at the same time honing your choreographic, dancing, and musical skills. Both fledgling and experienced ECD choreographers are welcome, camper musicians as well. Or come as a dancer - it’s loads of fun to be part of the choreographic process and be among the first to dance a new creation.

Yoga for Dancers: Anna Rain

Anna will teach elements of yoga, alignment and posture for dancers. Learn basic anatomy of joints and muscles and how to use that knowledge to your dancing advantage. Incorporate strategies to reduce injuries and how to care for them when they do happen. Stand taller! Dance more smoothly! For all.

August 6 - 13, 2011

Is there still room?For up-to-date info about availability and wait lists,
see our Program Weeks page.

Program Description

Join us this year for a wonderful week of English dancing in the magical setting of Pinewoods Camp. Come share the tremendous vitality of English country and display dance, with wonderful teachers and superb musicians, in a fantastic place!

Our English country teachers include Philippe Callens, a perennial favorite returning to Pinewoods from Belgium after way too long an absence. Philippe will teach two country dance classes, one of gems from the 17th and 18th centuries, the other of his own original compositions and reconstructions. In addition, he will lead a class for experienced callers on how to teach style. Helene Cornelius, English country dance leader of CDS Boston Centre for over forty years and first recipient of the CDSS Lifetime Contribution Award, will teach one class for advanced dancers on treasures of the historic repertoire. Innovative West Coast choreographer Brooke Friendly will once again coordinate the popular choreographers’ workshop; additionally, Brooke will teach Dancing the Whole Dance, an exploration of how the use of global terminology can add to our dancing pleasure. New to Pinewoods English Week but a rising star out West, caller Kalia Kliban will offer a session of favorite English country dances for all, including old classics as well as modern compositions.

We are incredibly lucky to have two all-star display dance leaders on staff this week. Orion Sword’s dynamic Judy Erickson will teach three classes: longsword style, Molly dancing, and Big Choreography (a compelling mixture of Morris and sword). Back by demand, Meg Ryan will teach both advanced English clog and English clogging for all.

Our glorious musicians cover the full spectrum of current English music in America, from classically strong phrasing and dynamic rhythms to cutting edge lyrical and flowing countermelodies. They include Peter Barnes, Dan Beerbohm, Jon Berger, Noel Cragg, Barbara Greenberg, Jonathan Jensen, Shira Kammen, and Jim Oakden. In addition to dancing to these splendid artists, you'll have opportunities all day to join them in making music, in class and out.

And there’s more. Returning for a fourth straight year, Anna Rain will teach Yoga to help us all reach our full physical potential as dancers. Karen Geer will help us lift up our voices in song, and Kalia Kliban will lead our camp-wide Gathering, a time for us all to get together as a community to listen, share and learn. As for me, I will coordinate the callers’ open mic, providing moral support and constructive feedback to those who wish, while working closely with multi-instrumentalist, multi-talented Jim Oakden, who will coordinate the band

Evening dances will feature a wide range of both favorite and about-to-be favorite English country dances, plus a nightly dance "For Those Who Know," with all the splendid country dance musicians and callers on staff. Afterwards, you'll have ample opportunities to make good things happen, with late night singing and dancing likely, a ceilidh dance and pub sing for sure, and the annual fun and fundraising auction to support camp scholarships for years to come.

English Dance Week at Pinewoods

Program Director

Sharon Green

Sharon Green first encountered English country dancing as a total beginner at Pinewoods English Week in 1988 and has been in love with it and with English dancers ever since. A confirmed dance gypsy, Sharon has led dances and workshops in the United States, Canada, England, and, most memorably, Japan, but is most happy when her wanderings bring her back to Pinewoods and to English Week.

Staff

Peter Barnes

Peter Barnes has been playing more instruments, in more genres, in more interesting locations, for longer than most of us can remember. Averaging over 250 gigs per year, he currently plays in the Latter Day Lizards, Bare Necessities, Big Bandemonium, Dark Carnival and Yankee Ingenuity. Peter also keeps himself busy with teaching, recording, publishing music books, composing and crafting wooden whistles.

Daniel Beerbohm

Daniel Beerbohm, on clarinet, flute and penny whistle, spices his English and contra dance playing from a rich background of swing, Klezmer and classical music. He performs extensively with Hold The Mustard, A Joyful Noise, and Reunion, at dances along the East coast and occasionally westward.

Jon Berger

Jon Berger is well known in the West for his powerful fiddling and his ability to maintain a connection between the music, the dancers and the dance. A veteran of BACDS English, American and Family Weeks, and of California’s Renaissance and Dickens Fairs, Jon has played fiddle and concertina for morris, English country and contra dances since 1976. He is also a former member of Tempest, a Celtic rock band that plays for an entirely different style of dancing.

Philippe Callens

Philippe Callens, of Belgium, is returning for his sixth summer on staff at a CDSS Pinewoods dance week. Internationally known as a dance leader of English country dancing and other styles, Philippe combines high quality dancing with enjoyment. He has been active in the dance community for more than 30 years, teaching, publishing, reconstructing old and composing modern dances, and has called all over the U.S. for the last twenty years. Philippe has authored numerous publications. At the moment he is working on a new book of English dances, Seasons of Invention, accompanied by a CD by the bands A Joyful Noise and Hold the Mustard, which will be released this summer.

Helene Cornelius

Helene Cornelius, English country dance leader of CDS Boston Centre for forty years and a perennial favorite at our dance weeks at Pinewoods and Buffalo Gap, has made an invaluable contribution to the English dance community as a teacher, an arbiter of taste, an inspiration to generations of dancers and an incomparable builder of both historical and contemporary repertory.

Judy Erickson

Judy Erickson foreman of the groundbreaking dance troupe Orion Longsword, choreographs sword dances combining traditional steps and figures with innovative elements including Appalachian stepping, jazz and other American styles. In the step dancing world she is an accomplished dancer, choreographer and teacher, blending elements of Scottish, Appalachian, English clog and French-Canadian step dancing to develop her own steps and styles, both structured and improvisational. In recent years her step dance choreography has been an integral feature of Boston's Christmas Revels. Judy is also a past foreman of Muddy River Morris.

Brooke Friendly

Brooke Friendly is known for her warm yet commanding personality, her ability to convey directions concisely and clearly, her creativity and her sense of humor and whimsy. She has a strong sense of what makes for a good community and she makes the learning experience fun and relaxing. Brooke leads a weekly English and Scottish Country Dance in Ashland, OR and calls at balls and dances around the U.S. and Canada. She was on staff at the BACDS English Dance Week at Mendocino in 2003, and again in 2007 and 2008, serving as Program Director those two years. An internationally recognized dance choreographer, she has published three books of dances written in collaboration with her husband, Chris Sackett, and, with Chris, has organized choreographers' discussion sessions at Pinewoods English Week for the past two years.

Karen Geer

Karen Geer, from New York City, is a singer and tuba player. She received her degrees from Kent State University and Manhattan School of Music. She sings regularly in New York City and is the Executive Director of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Karen is married to Paul Friedman and has a daughter Molly.

Barbara Greenberg

Barbara Greenberg began fiddling during her college years and has been “dancing” on the band stand or a dance floor since 1980. Playing both Contra and English Country dance music with Hold The Mustard, A Joyful Noise, A Band Named Bob and Reunion, she is highly sought after to play and teach at dance weekends and camps. She has recorded 7 albums of dance music with her bands and has traveled internationally with them. When Barbara is not fiddling, she is preparing the next wave of fiddlers and violinists in her studio teaching.

Jonathan Jensen

Jonathan Jensen is an inspired pianist in musical styles ranging from English country and contra to ragtime and jazz. Jon is a composer of brilliant dance tunes and waltzes, a frequent performer at dance events and a bassist with the Baltimore Symphony. When not playing piano at camp he is often filling in on whistle, recorder, ocarina or mandolin and offering his original songs, both silly and serious.

Shira Kammen

Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. A member for many years of Ensembles Alcatraz, Project Ars Nova and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata and the King's Noyse, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance on river rafting trips. She has performed and taught in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Israel, Morocco, Latvia, Russia, Japan and on the Colorado and Rogue rivers. Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for 15 years and performs now with a diversity of collaborators, including storyteller Patrick Ball, the English country dance band Roguery, medieval ensembles Fortune's Wheel and Tapestry, and the California Revels, among many others. She occasionally has played on movie and television soundtracks, when weird medieval instruments are called for.

Kalia Kliban

Kalia Kliban has been part of the Bay Area dance community since the mid-80s, performing and teaching morris, longsword, American and English clog and English country dance. She is program director for BACDS's upcoming Fall Frolick weekend and has also programmed BACDS Family Week. Her clear and humorous teaching style has gotten feet tapping at camps and gatherings throughout California and beyond.

Jim Oakden

Jim Oakden plays an absurd number of instruments from accordion to zurna. Having stumbled into early music from the classical music scene, he soon discovered traditional and ethnic dance and music. Jim has played for English and morris for 20 plus years, and performs as a dance musician in an eclectic array of genres. In California, he also has served as program director for several of BACDS's most popular dance weekends and weeks.

Anna Rain

Anna Rain is honored to return to Early Music Week,
leading Intermediate ECD during the day and sharing direction of the evening
dance program with Graham Christian. Anna delights in the nexus of melody,
movement and community. As a dance leader, she channels the discipline of her
day job as a certified Iyengar Yoga instructor, teaching efficiently and
effectively, and calling every body to move confidently, with ease and grace. Anna
plays recorder in three bands: Hot Toddy (playing the 2013 and 2014
Williamsburg Ball), Jack Rose (see us at NEFFA 2014!) and Night Cap.

Meg Ryan

Meg Ryan, from Northampton, MA, is an outstanding performer and teacher of both English and Anglo-American clog dance styles. She has studied under some of the masters of the traditions of English clog, including Pat Tracey and Alex Woodcock. Meg has performed in England, Canada and the U.S., and is a member of The New Dancing Marleys, who perform the routines of Anna Marley of Rockville, CT. She also teaches and performs Northwest Morris with Guiding Star Clog Morris from Greenfield, MA.